Catch the wind

Sunday, August 29, 2010

...cool rules for writing

BIG thanks to everyone who did the writers oath with me and the ones who put it on their blog. now from my new book writing magic: creating stories that fly by gail carson levine heres the really cool rules for writing.

1. The best way to write better is to write more.2. The best way to write better is to write more.3. The best way to write better is to write more.4. The best way to write more is to write whenever you have five minutes and wherever you find a chair and a pen and paper or your computer.5. Read! Most likely you don’t need this rule. If you enjoy writing, you probably enjoy reading. The payoff for this pleasure is that reading books shows you how to write them.6. Reread! There’s nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over. When you do, the words get inside you, become part of you, in a way that words in a book you’ve read only once can’t.7. Save everything you write, even if you don’t like it, even if you hate it. Save it for a minimum of fifteen years. I'm serious. At that time, if you want to, you can throw it out, but, even then don't discard you writing lightly.

x

ok...theres the coolrules for writing! im gonna try to be a good rule keeper and i hope youll be one with me.

Great rules! I especially want to highlight #7. When I was in high school, I threw away everything I wrote in middle school. Boy, my high school self was really harsh! I wish I had those stories back so I could read them now or show my daughter.

Great, great rules Lenny! one of the cool things about saving writing you don't like, is you can always keep the idea and try rewriting it again! rewriting teaches you almost as much as rereading does! :)thanks for posting!

Great rules! So far I have saved everything from the last ten years and I'm so glad I did! Not only can I see how i've grown as a writer, but I also get ideas off of the old ideas too. And there are soooo many!

Great tips, Lenny! I wish I had my diaries from my teenage years, papers from college, and stories I wrote when I was younger. I think I have dug through every box of "old" stuff in our house and I'm pretty sure I don't have those papers anywhere...

Hi Lenny was nice to come accross you blog. Loved the rules, especially the last one about saving. Im terrible for throwing things out. Hope that your having a great day! and feel free to take a wee peek at mine to.http://blackrosesee.blogspot.com all the best

When you mention saving something for 15 years, I encourage that sort of saving completely. I found something I wrote back in high school and was able to salvage a couple of sentences. It also gave me another idea for a future project.

Hey Lenny,You offer some really neat advice, here. I began writing when I was a little boy and I still have some of my old stuff lying around. I quite like my old scribbled down notes. They make me smile.I believe you should write from the heart. Smiles your way, 'Mr. Gary' :-)

I love the fifteen year rule.The book I am about to publish was 1st drafted about fifteen years ago. I pulled it out when I had some time and hated the writing, really really bad. But I still liked the plot and the central characters, so I started again. This time it works.